Scarlet Fragments
by Leaf Silicon
Summary: Cupid was never really on Adelaide's side, her holidays filled with good memories that she longs for and some that she would rather forget but couldn't. From childhood to adolescence, watch her grow through the years she thought she was alone. OC story
1. Chapter 1: Birthday Surprise

**A/N: WAHH! It feels so long since I've actually made a chapter. Well here is my (extremely) belated Valentines Special! Hope you like it! =3  
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><p><em>How long must I hide?<em>

_Why can't I just reveal it?  
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_These feelings for you..._

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><p><em>The 24th of November<em>

Forcing a smile in front of her male classmates, Adelaide's eyebrows were slowly twitching at how she got to be surrounded by so many boys from her class, giving her presents and greeting her one after the other. Its not like it was a bad thing, but….

"Okay people! Move along! Bestfriend of the birthday girl coming through!" Artemis shouted as she shoved through the boys, almost being pushed back and falling face down in the process before making all the boys leave. She began to breathe heavily as she finally reached Adelaide's desk, out of breath from shouting. "Aren't you bothered by all the ruckus they're making?" Artemis whispered so the boys wouldn't hear as she sat cross-legged on top of Adelaide's table.

Adelaide shook her head and smiled. "Its fine, its not like they're doing something bad are they?" Artemis heaved out a sigh. "And to think that we wouldn't be noticed too much by the students…" she glared at the boys from the corner of her eyes.

"Speaking of boys, where's your brother?"

Artemis shrugged and stood up. "Nii-san! Where are you!" she shouted but there was no reply. The bluennette bit her lip before taking a deep breath and shouting: "APOLLO NII-SAN!"

Still nothing. Adelaide leaned on her seat. "He's probably gone to the bathroom or something Artemis, it would be better if we wait for a while…". Artemis heaved out a small sigh. "Guess I have no choice then…." she said and got up on Adelaide's table and covered her nose and did a few vocal exercises to make sure her voice sounded different and started shouting in Latin.

"Paging Apollo Vaciller! Paging Apollo Vaciller! Soror est currently raperetur! Inquam, sis soror RAPERETUR!"

Suddenly the door was banged open and a brown haired boy got in holding a broken metal pipe got in, his blue-green eyes filled with anger.

"WHERE IS HE? WHERE'S THAT BASTARD THAT DARE TRIES TO-" Apollo cut himself off and gawked as let go of the pipe when he saw Artemis waving to him from atop Adelaide's desk. Adelaide covered her mouth and tried very hard not to laugh.

Apollo scratched the back of his head in embarrassment as he made his way through where the two girls were, while people were staring at the three of them wondering and whispering to each other if the other knew what the message

meant.

"Seriously Artemis, that wasn't funny! And get down from there, you'll fall! " Apollo started scolding his twin as he finally reached them, Artemis laughed as she sat down at her bestfriend's table before crossing her legs. "Sorry Nii-san, but you wouldn't answer so I needed to take drastic measures…." the girl smirked.

Apollo rolled his eyes. "How unlady-like of you, as always."

The female twin shrugged. "Well it isn't my fault, dad didn't want a girl, so he raised me just like you. Man I can't even imagine what I would look like if I was raised like a girl…." And with that thought she shuddered in disgust. "Aw man! I can't even imagine me in such girly clothes without getting disgusted!"

Her twin brother let out a sigh. "If you don't ever get married, don't go crying up to me to comfort you little sister." Apollo said and patted her head. Artemis' eyes suddenly turned sharp. "I'm your _twin_ for crying out loud! Not your younger sister!" she ranted.

"Yeah yeah, I'm just teasing you…." Apollo laughed which turned Artemis' angry and annoyed expression to a childish pout. Adelaide smiled as she just silently watched them argue from the background, trying hard not to heave out a sigh before seeing a familiar brunette wave at her.

_Daisy?_

Adelaide quietly got up and sneaked from behind the twins, still bickering with each other before safely walking over to Daisy's direction, the two siblings still not noticing that she has left her desk.

"Do they always fight like that?" the girl asked as they walked along the corridor leading to the school's cafeteria. Adelaide nodded and sighed. "Only most of the time though."

"I see…those two are so close to each other aren't they?" Daisy giggled.

The blonde smiled as they sat down, Daisy sitting in the seat parallel to hers. "Speaking of which, do you have someone special to you?"

_Someone…s-s-s-special..?_

Adelaide felt her face heating up. Why oh why must she ask these kind of things? The girl looked at the table and started playing with her fingers hidden under the table. "N-no, no one in particular at least…" the girl blushed a bit harder, wishing that it was hardly noticeable.

Daisy giggled. "You look so cute when you blush…no wonder so many boys like you…" she giggled again causing Adelaide to blush harder. "So by chance do I know this special someone?" Daisy smiled though to Adelaide right now it seemed to resemble a smirk, though she could have been hallucinating.

Adelaide looked at the floor again, her bangs now shadowed the upper part of her face as if to hide her blush, which was probably getting redder by the minute if only she could see it. "Well…..I….."

"I was just joking Adelaide."

Adelaide wanted to let out a sigh and tell her never to tease her about that kind of things _ever again_, but she knew better than that since it will mean that she was lying about what she said earlier. But talking about the person who she likes, it was practically driving her crazy! But even if she'd tell her she would bet her entire fortune that she'd already have guessed who it was in no time flat, besides he just happened to be Daisy's childhood friend!

The girl looked up to see the girl in front of her softly giggling. "Adelaide's your face is heating up again…." Adelaide felt herself blush harder and tried her best not to panic. Why is it that she has to be so childish at times?

"Here….."

Daisy smiled and handed her a pink box with a big ribbon tied to it. Adelaide finally stopped blushing and smiled as well before taking the present.

"Thank you Daisy."

"No problem. Open it!"

"Now?"

"Yup! Its gonna melt if you don't!"

_Melt?_ Adelaide thought as she opened the box, untying the ribbon before lifting the lid to find about a dozen chocolate bonbons. _So that's what she meant by my gift melting….._

"Go ahead and try it!"

The blonde nodded and plump one into her mouth and smiled. "Thank you Daisy. Its very delicious…."

Daisy giggled. "I'm glad you like it, by the way….." the girl smiled and intertwined her hands together. "Did Tom and Mike already greet you today?"

Adelaide blushed a bit at the name of her crush. "No, no he-I mean, _they_ haven't."

Daisy nodded and sighed. "Maybe they don't know its today?"

The girl shook her head. "I don't know actually…." Her gaze was at the floor now again. They've only known each other for only about five months now, so she's not so sure that they knew when her birthday was. She heaved out a small sigh and Daisy did the same.

"Did the twins give you their gift already?"

"Yes…." Adelaide said and brought out a small cream colored stuffed teddy with a orange scarf around its neck with orange goggles on its head. "I wonder where they bought it though since we can't leave campus and all….." Daisy nodded in agreement.

"Maybe they got their parents to bring it here?"

Adelaide shook her head. Of all the things there father would do for them that was the last thing he'd do, tied up with letting Artemis go to an all girls academy where she'd learn proper etiquette and learn to be a lady and all. He'd probably kill himself first before he lets a child of his forget the ways of a soldier…

Knowing them they probably snuck out at night to buy it though…..

The girl returned the stuff toy back to her bag and finished the chocolates when a sudden thought came up to her mind. "Hey Daisy did you make these all by yourself?"

The brunette nodded. "Yup! Why'd you ask?"

"Its nothing…."

"Well if you say so." Daisy got up and straightened her skirt. "Oh and do you think that Artemis and Apollo are doing okay back in there?" Adelaide giggled at what she said.

"Definitely. Those two won't even be able to live without each other, they'll be just fine."

"You sure?"

Nodding, Adelaide got up as well and bid her goodbyes to the brunette before heading off to class even though lunch break wasn't over yet. Problem was, she didn't look where she was going….

_THUD!_

"Ow!" Adelaide murmured and sat up to see her books and papers all scattered about. She blushed as she looked in front of her to see a brown haired offered her a hand.

"Hey, you okay Adelaide?" he asked, his jade green eyes filled with concern. Slowly nodding, Adelaide took his hand and blushed harder before getting up, He flashed her a smile before helping her pick up her books scattered throughout the corridor.

"Thank you Tom…" Adelaide whispered and stroke some of her hair behind her ear since it was getting on her eyes. He smiled as he handed her the books.

"No problem." Adelaide nodded while looking at the ground as she took them back when the bell suddenly rang. "Well, we better get to class soon." he said and started walking off. "Oh and uh…..Happy Birthday Adelaide" he smiled and walked off.

Adelaide felt her face heating up, fast.

_He remembered..._

"Hey, Adelaide! HEY!" Artemis shouted and waved her arms in front of the blonde who was daydreaming and keep on smiling. She's been like this for about three periods now, which was definitely not like her, _at all_. The bluenette bit her lip while her brother sighed.

"What the heck happened to her?" Artemis looked at Apollo who shrugged.

"Why are you looking at me? Besides you know her much better than I do…."

The bluenette sighed and nodded and clicked her fingers in front of Adelaide's eyes, who was still in a daze. "For crying out loud Adelaide…WAKE UP!" Still no reaction, she didn't even blink!

"Argh!" Artemis held her head and started to trash around.

"Vae! Quare non expergiscere! Hoc supponitur esse natalis post omnes! Vigilaveris! Vigilaveris! VIGILAVERIS!" Artemis bellowed which caught the attention of all the people remaining in the room, some students walking in the hallway even shot her some looks and some even shook their heads.

"Adelaide snap out of it!" Apollo said and banged his fists on the table which finally caught her attention.

"Hm?" she said and finally came back to Earth. "What is it Apollo?" she asked which almost made Artemis explode in anger.

"Why did you notice him? I've been calling for you to wake up for about a hundred times now and you weren't able to! Seriously Adelaide what happened to you?" Artemis asked, her eyebrow twitching to show that she was clearly annoyed. Adelaide sweatdropped. Suddenly she felt herself smile as she thought about what happened that morning and blushed a bit. Should she tell them? Oh what's the harm in doing that….?

"WHAT?" Artemis shouted, her jaw would have probably reached the ground if it could. "Adelaide why in the world are you excited about_ that_?"

Apollo wasn't listening as he put he borrowed his sister's headphones and played his iPod on to full volume so he couldn't hear her rant over and over again. Adelaide on the other hand tried to calm her down, but unfortunately with no success of doing so which just made her shout even louder in rage.

As expected, it took quite a while for the girl to finally calm down, her hair was slowly starting to lose its bluish color since she was inside for quite some time now, and so was her brother's, making them look even more alike if possible, but with Artemis' less than shoulder-length hair, it was kind of hard _not_ to tell them alike, if it wasn't only for their genders of course….

"By the way, class was pretty quiet today, well, I wouldn't be surprised since Michael wasn't here….." Artemis grinned and started polishing her knife, which was supposed to be kept hidden for crying out loud! "I wonder if he's skipping classes again?"

"A-Artemis, you shouldn't be showing that thi-thing in class you know, even if we're the only ones here…." Adelaide stammered as her bestfriend sighed and returned the knight to its sheath located underneath her jeans. Apollo could only shakes his head as he took the headphones off and put them on top of the table on Artemis' desk right next to where she was sitting….cross-legged on.

"I wonder where Mike is though…..it feels kind of weird without having anyone to beat up…"

Artemis sighed and received a smack on the head from her brother which almost caused her to fall down.

"Wah! Nii-san what did you do that for?"

"Because you keep on being such a sadist, that's why."

"Nii-san…."

"Yeah?"

"What's a sadist?"

Apollo stayed quiet for quite a while. "Artemis if you're joking with me then you're doing a good job about it…."

"I'm not joking Nii-san."

"…"

"Nii-san?"

"…I'm going for a walk…I think I'm hallucinating…."

"O…kay….? Well see you later then, I guess…." Artemis stammered, obviously at a loss for words.

"Could we at least expect to see you at the party later?"

"Y-yeah…I guess….."

The two girls heaved out a sigh once he finally left.

"What's with that guy lately…..?" the bluenette started scratching the back of her neck

"Maybe he's not having enough sleep?"

Artemis shrugged and sighed as she looked out the window. "Shouldn't we already be decorating for the party?"

Now it was Adelaide's turn to sigh. "Do we really have to? Besides I reaaaally want to spend my birthday in peace."

Her bestfriend heaved out another large sigh.

"Fine….besides this time we don't exactly have that much space to celebrate anyway…."

Adelaide smiled and nodded as they both got out of the classroom, only to be greeted with a familiar face.

"Adelaaaaaaaaaaaaaaide~"

The two girls expressions turned grim as Robert headed their way, hiding one of his hands behind his back. Artemis' eyebrows started to twitch in annoyance as she pulled out her whip making the boy blink a few times.

"Now now Artemis this isn't them time to fight~ Besides today's Adelaide bi-"

"SHUT UP ERAGOR!" Artemis bellowed and swung her whip at him causing him to jump and laughed.

"Miss me!"

Artemis smirked and began to twirl her whip around and tied it around his foot before grabbing the leather whip and pulling it back making the boy fall face down to the ground before grabbing Adelaide's hand.

"Come on!" The girl said and pulled her over to the girl's dormitory before Robert could wake up.

After a few minutes they finally reached the front door of Adelaide's room, the only room in the building that was a person was allowed to stay in alone instead of sharing it with another girl.

"You okay?"

Adelaide nodded as they got inside, the room was pitch black. "Huh?"

Artemis grinned as the lights turned back on revealing her room had been decorated with streamers and balloons.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADELAIDE!"

She yelled and later on got hit by a shoe.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Artemis turned around, her eyes narrowed as she turned around only to see Apollo standing there with only one shoe on.

"We were ALL suppose to greet her at the same time, stupid Artemis." He sighed which made Artemis even angrier.

"BUT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO HIT ME FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! AND I THOUGHT YOU WENT FOR A WALK? DON'T TELL ME YOU WERE HERE ALL ALO-" Artemis was cut off as her brother hit her gently on the head.

"Come on Arts you're going to cause a commotion here again…"

"Why you…." Artemis grit her teeth as she started scolding her brother, who obviously just ignored her.

Adelaide sweatdropped as a giggling Daisy walked towards her.

"They're so close to each other aren't they?" she asked, still giggling a bit at the sight of the twins fighting.

Adelaide nodded and smiled before someone tapped her shoulder.

"Hm?" Turning around, she suddenly felt her face heating up to see Tom standing behind her.

"Hey."

"Um….h-hi….." the girl stammered and looked at the ground. Noticing the girl's sudden switch of personality, Daisy giggled a bit before smirking.

_Oh Tom…just make a move on her already…_

"Well, happy birthday Adelaide…."

"Um…T-thank you Tom…."

"Y-yeah…hey, I got something fo-"

"Hey you guys! A little help here please!"

Tom was cut off Mike knocked on the door before coming in carrying a large box, catching the attention of everyone in the room, even the twins who stopped pulling each other's hair off.

"Phew! That sure was heavy…" he said finally placing the cake on top of a table and smiled devilishly as he saw Adelaide. "Did I miss anything?"

"Um….no." Tom said and scratched the back of his neck.

"Though I wished you didn't come to the party…" Artemis whispered to herself earning a flick on the back of her head by her brother.

"OW!" The girl glared at her twin, who was too busy trying to find something from his bag.

"Well then I hope everybody hasn't given their gifts out yet since I still have to give mine~"

_Oh shut up Michael….._The bluenette heaved out a sigh as she got herself a cup of juice from Adelaide's refrigerator and drank it all up in one gulp.

Mike smirked as he untied the ribbon around the box revealing a three layered strawberry cake. "Well? What do you guys think?"

Tom rolled his eyes before tightening his hiding his arms behind his back again. Artemis on the other hand, was drooling as she looked at the cake.

"Cake…." she continued to mutter over and over again which made Apollo sigh.

_She never changes….._

"So how do you like it Adelaide?" Mike asked and pumped his fist on his chest multiple times.

"Um….Mike…." Adelaide began, as she looked at the three layered cake with strawberries layered on top.

"Yes…?"

"Is that cake…made up of strawberries?"

"Uh-huh."

"It would be rude to say this but…."

"Come on! You can tell me!"

"Sure you wanna?

"Yup!"

"Mike…" Adelaide took a deep breath before facing him. "I'm _allergic_ to strawberries."

"…You're joking right?"

"Sorry….."

Mike blinked a few times before going to sulk in a corner.

"I skipped classes just to make that cake and it was all for nothing….."

"Hey Mike, can I eat it instead?" Artemis asked, her flirty personality showing itself, unfortunately this time Mike was too depressed to even notice.

"Sure…."

"OH YEAH!" Artemis shouted before grabbing a fork and started to eat to her heart's content.

"A-Artemis…."

"That's my sister for you….." Apollo sighed before going to get a drink.

Tom sighed as he walked towards Adelaide. "That guy seriously has to learn not to get so discouraged so easily…." Adelaide blushed seeing they were the only ones in the room seeing the others were eating at the kitchen, excluding the currently emoting Mike in the corner.

"Yeah...I guess so…" Diverting her gaze to everywhere inside the room except at him.

"So…um…." he stammered as he brought a pink box out when her phone suddenly rang.

"Oh, sorry I have to take this…."

Tom nodded as Adelaide smiled at him before leaving the room. The boy sighed as he held on to Adelaide's birthday present.

"Hello?"

"Happy Birthday Adelaide!"

The girl smiled at the voice of her cousin.

"Camilla sensei!"

The voice on the other sighed laughed. "That's me! So how are you doing in the Academy Adelaide?"

"I'm fine…."

Artemis looked out the window and watched as Adelaide giggled and laughed as she talked to Camilla on the phone, still not finish eating her, or rather supposedly Adelaide's cake.

"She's taking quite a while isn't she?" Daisy asked while Artemis nodded seeing she was too busy with her cake before noticing Tom enter the kitchen.

"Wonder who she's talking to…"

"Probably her parents..." Artemis said before engulfing yet another piece of cake. Apollo let out another sigh as he took another sip of his drink.

"Yes. I know. Okay, bye." Adelaide sighed as she turned her phone off, feeling her face heating up.

_Did you meet someone you like?_

"Sensei...what made you think of such a thing?" she shouted and covered her mouth, blushing harder before going back into her room, only to find Tom standing there.

"What took you so long?" Adelaide felt herself blush even harder.

"Its nothing, my cousin called me that's all…"

"Oh, I see….."

The girl nodded, her gaze on the floor.

"Well I guess I'm the last one to give you your present today then…."

The blonde gazed up to see him hand her a pink box and blushed a lot harder than she already was.

"T-thank you Tom…" he smiled

"Open it."

Adelaide nodded before untying the ribbon and lifted the lid before gazing upon a white iris necklace.

"Artemis told me that it was your favorite flower…."

"R-really?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Artemis? She actually told Tom what she liked?

"So…..do you like it?"

"Yes." Lifting her head, she gazed into his eyes and smiled as the boy smiled back.

...

_I love it._


	2. Chapter 2: Bitter Sweet Chocolates

**A/N: Funny thing...I actually finished this chapter before I was able to finish chapter 1. XD**

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><p><em>Again and again<em>

_No matter how many times..._

_I want you to know_

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><p>Adelaide was shaking. She held on close to her backpack as she hid from behind her bedroom door. She could barely moved her legs. Her face was as red as a tomato as she tightened her grip on her backpack. What was wrong with her? It was just a gift, nothing else! So why...?<p>

She slightly opened the door more as she watched some girls offering their valentines to a brown-haired boy. The girl felt herself heating up, shaking a bit more as she backed away again. There was no way she would be able to give it to him with all those girls around Tom.

Her heart almost skipped a beat as he looked her way and she quickly responded by closing her door and leaning her back on it, breathing heavily.

_That was a close call..._

Opening the door again, she took a small peek in hopes that Tom had already turned his head around so he wouldn't see her. Thankfully he did and excused himself since class was about to start soon. Adelaide heaved out a small sigh and zipped her backpack open and took out a small red heart shaped box with a white lace ribbon tied around it and sighed in relief. Thank goodness it was still in good shape even though she hugged it tight just a while ago.

Bag in hand, she returned the box and placed in safely between two of her books. Tying her hair in a simple braid, she left her room and started walking towards her classroom. She smiled as a bluenette waved, sitting cross-legged on top of desk before jumping off to greet the blonde.

"Yo! Adelaide! What happened? I got here earlier than you today..." Artemis asked, her eyes filled with concern. Adelaide smiled and placed her bag carefully on top of her desk which was two rows behind Artemis before sitting down on her chair.

"So..." Artemis frowned a bit and sighed as she crossed her arms. "Please tell me you've given it to him already?" Adelaide's gaze turned to the floor and tightened her grip on the handle of her bag. Artemis heaved out a loud sigh.

"Adelaide come on, it can't be_ that_ hard to give it to him..."

Says you…..Adelaide tried not to sigh as she placed her bag in the small compartment under her desk and took out her books before an all too familiar face came in. Adelaide blushed a little which she tried to hide as Tom smiled at her as he passed by her seat. Artemis on the other hand, glared at him and stuck her tongue out the second he didn't look at them.

"Seriously Adelaide, why do you like that guy so much-!"

Artemis' eyes widened as Adelaide covered her mouth using her handkerchief, making her yelp. "Shh!" The blonde was blushing furiously and looked at Tom's direction, thankfully he wasn't looking at them, probably because he was surrounded by girls again which made Adelaide tighten her grip on her handkerchief, and unfortunately suffocating Artemis even more.

"A-A-Ade-laide...!" Artemis gagged and Adelaide released her grip.

'So-sorry….." Adelaide apologized and sat down, looking at Tom still surrounded by girls giving him their valentines. Sometimes she wonders if girls today just love giving valentines to the boys to show their appreciation or to show how much they like them, which of course was discouraging her to give hers even more...

The bluenette sighed once she stopped coughing. "Adelaide you really have got to control yourself sometimes..." Adelaide kept on apologizing again and again as Apollo walked toward them.

"Everything alright?" Artemis' fraternal twin asked as he looked from Adelaide to his sister. "What happened here?"

Apollo tried his best not to laugh as the two girls explained what happened. Artemis pouted at her brother's reaction which resulted in a small chuckle coming from him.

"Nii-san! This isn't funny!" Artemis' eyebrow was twitching to show that she was clearly annoyed of her brother's actions. Adelaide giggled a little at her bestfriend's reaction. It was so expected of her to just explode out of the blue like that…..

Suddenly the bell rang signaling that class was about to begin. The twins waved goodbye and headed to their seats. Adelaide smiled and brought out her pencil case, almost causing the box of chocolates to fall. Ah! The girl panicked but thankfully caught it but landed on the floor on the process.

The girl blushed in embarrassment as she hid the box behind her back, hoping nobody saw it. Quickly getting on her knees while looking on the floor, she bumped into something and flinched. "Ow..." She barely murmured before seeing someone standing, or rather_ kneeling_ in front of her and blushed.

Slowly tilting her head upwards, she blushed even harder to see Tom standing in front of her, his hand reaching out as if to help her get up. His jade green eyes seemed to reflect her image. His worried expression made her look away, though hesitating since he looked so sincere with that expression on his handsome face.

"You okay Adelaide?"

Slowly nodding, the blonde got up by herself, still not facing him, bangs shadowing the upper part of her face. Tom smiled and got up himself. Adelaide blushed harder as she faced him, her gaze still on the floor though, too embarrassed to let him see that she was blushing.

"That's good." He smiled and suddenly noticed the girl was hiding something behind her hands and chuckled. "Is that for a special someone?"

"Its not like that!"

Adelaide blushed furiously as she gazed into his eyes which had an unexpected surprised spark in them. The girl reverted her gaze back to the floor. _Oh how embarrassing! _she thought and tightened her grip on the heart shaped red box.

Reverting her gaze to anywhere else in the room but to him, she noticed some of the girls were softly giggling in delight on how the blonde fell down from her seat. Artemis was glaring at them to shut up which they immediately did seeing her eyes suddenly turned sharper than usual, a sign that she's starting to get angry, and they definitely did_ not_ want that to happen...

"Well I better go back to my seat now before our teacher goes in..." with a smile Tom left and went back to his desk with some of the girls snickering at probably how embarrassing that was for the blonde. Adelaide quietly went back to her own desk and hid the box back in her bag but before the teacher came in for homeroom. Artemis looked over from her seat two rows in front in front of Adelaide's and mouthed some words in Latin.

_Volo __me__ percutere__ crap__ de__ eis__?_

Adelaide shook her head in a no. There was no way that she would let Artemis do something like that and not get them in trouble afterwards. Artemis pouted and sighed but nodded anyway, understanding the situation they were in and glared at the other girls again before going back to taking her nap. Adelaide looked at the girls from the corner of her eye.

_Though I guess it wouldn't hurt, just this once..._

Out of the blue a high pitch scream was heard around the room which woke Artemis from her cat nap.

"What's wrong?"

"Ra-rat!" a girl said and pointed out a white rat which was crawling on her desk.

Adelaide tried her best not to giggle. How unladylike. It was just a rat after all, and it wasn't even contagious…

Artemis shot a look at her twin who shook his head. Suddenly Apollo looked at Adelaide, the only girl, other than his own sister, who was a bit tomboyish so disgusting things like rats didn't bothered her even in the slightest bit. Adelaide was sitting in her chair, feet together and her composure reflected her , rather unknown, status to the students in the academy.

Some of the guys got up and tried to catch the rodent thanks to the girl's begging them to since they felt like it was too gross to even look at. Adelaide didn't even flinch when the rat climbed on her desk and just watched it move towards the next desk with an emotionless face.

_Oh man..._

Apollo got up from his seat and grabbed his sister's canister from her bag and trapping the rat in it. The girls sighed in relief as the rat chase was finally over. Though this time it was Artemis' turn to scream.

"Nii-san! My hot chocolate!" she screamed in agony since the rat was now swimming in the liquefied chocolate drink. Apollo sweatdropped before hearing another screech-like sound.

"Eww! Get that thing out of here!" one of the girls screeched and Apollo nodded, his sister got up and followed him outside the room.

Adelaide softly giggled a bit and looked at Tom who was chuckling a bit and she suddenly felt herself blush finally realizing she was looking at him for quite some time now and hurriedly turned her head around before he could notice that she was staring at him.

After class Adelaide was greeted by the twins who were waiting or her in the hallway. Apollo smiled while Artemis looked kind of grim and very sad while holding her now empty canister.

"You owe me some hot chocolate Adelaide..." she said which made Apollo sigh.

"Come on Artemis, I already told you that I would share mine with you..."

"But still…." Artemis looked as if she was ready to break into tears any second now..."Seriously Adelaide why did you do that for? You could have just made their hair blow up or something less...noisier than that..."

The blonde let out a small sigh. "Don't worry Artemis I'll give you some chocolates later…" and with those magic words the bluenette's frown turned upside down into a huge grin.

"Really?" she asked in disbelief which made her brother and even Adelaide sweatdrop.

"Yeah...just later okay?" Adelaide said and tightened her grip around her bag with the chocolates still inside and checked her watch. "Well I better go now…." she said and dashed off waving goodbye.

"But Adelaide...!"

Adelaide looked back to hear both of the twins calling for her.

"The boys' dormitory is over this way!"

The girl's face heated up in embarrassment and headed to the opposite direction she was going to just a second again before thanking them and walking off.

"Jinx! You owe me an ice cream cone later on Nii-san." Artemis smiled innocently which made her brother sigh.

"Yeah yeah..."

Finally reaching the boys dorm, Adelaide started breathing heavily, seeing as she ran all the way there. Her face was crimson red, with her heart beating faster by the second. She already failed on giving it to him this morning, but...

_Maybe this time he'll finally be alone..._

With that thought In mind, a smile was spread to her face which made her blush a bit harder as she hugged her bag close to her chest.

_And maybe I can finally tell him just how I feel..._

Running towards his room, there wasn't even a teacher keeping watch in sight! She let out a small giggle, only a few more steps then it would be Tom's room...just a few more...and...

"Hey there Adelaide!" Adelaide flinched when she saw the blonde boy in front of her, his mischievous brown eyes looked at her from head to toe. "So what are you doing over here?"

"Um...hello Mike..." the girl sweatdropped. Gah! She forgot all about the most troublesome obstacle of all...

"So what's in the bag?" he smirked which made Adelaide feel even more uncomfortable, and not the same kind of good uncomfortable she does when she's around Tom.

"Books...my pens and notes of course..." she replied. Well it was true though, it was her _school _bag after all for crying out loud...

"Really? Just what I needed!" he laughed. "I like to borrow some of your notes if its okay with you..." he said while scratching the back of his neck.

"Aren't we suppose to pass them within the week?"

"Yeah, but apparently Tom won't let me borrow his...hehe..."

Adelaide sweatdropped. "Um...sure..." she said and brought out of all of her notebooks and handed it to him.

"Thanks Adelaide, you're a life saver..."

"Just give it to me as soon as you can okay?" she sighed and slung her bag around her shoulder, the box falling out of the process.

"Hm? What's that?"

Adelaide screeched as Mike pointed at her box of chocolates fallen on the ground. "Uh...don't get the wrong idea!"

Mike smirked. "Come on Adelaide, you could just say that it was for me you know..."

The girl blinked a few times. "Excuse me?"

"Well they are for me...right?"

Covering her mouth trying to contain her laughter, Adelaide got up and put the box back in her bag.

"Sorry Mike, its not. But maybe next time I'll make one for you..." she said and waved goodbye heading back to her destination.

Mike stared at the spot where Adelaide was in disbelief. "I can't believe nobody gave me a Valentines this year..." the 10 year old sulked and headed back towards his room.

Almost at the top of the stairway, Adelaide hid behind the door leading to the boys' bedrooms and smiled as she saw Tom come out of his room.

_Now's my chance..._

"Hey Tom!"

"Wah!" Adelaide gave out a small yelp before covering her mouth and quickly hiding behind the door again only to see Apollo walk towards the boy. _Bad timing Apollo, very bad timing!_ The girl looked through the creak and saw the two boys talking to each other. The girl took a closer look and her eyes widened.

_Wait, Apollo should be a little bit taller than Tom, so why were they almost the same height...?_

Apollo then waved goodbye and went towards the door as Adelaide hid behind the next hallway going towards the janitor's room. Adelaide gasped as 'Apollo' took his, or rather her wig off to reveal bluish black colored hair tied hastily in a high bun and sighed.

"Artemis?"

The girl yelped and revealed her leather whip and turned towards her direction and her eyes widened as Adelaide showed herself to the older girl who quickly tied her whip around her waist, once again disguised as her 'belt'.

"So what were you talking to Tom about?" that question suddenly made Artemis' shoulders stiffened and sighed.

"Well?"

After another sigh, Artemis lead the blonde to the rooftop. "You really wanna know?"

Adelaide nodded. "Of course I do..."

The bluenette sighed. "I asked him if..."

_If...?_

"...if he got something for someone he liked."

Adelaide felt her heart beat faster and her face heating up. She touched the flower necklace Tom gave her for her birthday and slowly began to calm down.

"So...w-what did he say?"

Artemis shook her head. "He wouldn't tell me."

_Oh..._

Adelaide began to calm down a bit more as she looked over the horizon that separated the island the academy was on from the mainland of Sinnoh. "Is that so?"

"Yeah..."

_Silence._ Artemis sighed and joined the blonde, her gaze and thoughts being distant from the world they were currently living in.

"You weren't able to give it to him, were you?"

The girl sadly nodded and opened her bag and brought the box of chocolates out. Artemis sighed again as she looked at the box.

"Oh come on, cheer up!" Artemis pouted and placed her hands on her waist. "Adelaide this isn't like you to get depressed this easily! If this keeps going on your health is going to..." Artemis stopped herself and reverted her gaze on the floor. Adelaide smiled a bit.

"Its nothing Artemis, besides something like this isn't going to affect my health so easily…." Adelaide placed her hand on her chest, on the upper left part where her heart was. She could feel her heart beating normally and quietly sighed in relief, thankful she didn't get attacked again, but what she said was true though...

"Well it's a waste to just throw them away you know..." Artemis said and reached her hand out. "Come on Adelaide, let's see what it tastes like!" she winked and chuckled. Adelaide let out a small giggle and handed the box to her. Well since she was practically unable to give it to Tom all day, there wasn't any point when the sun was already about to set...

"Hope you like them Artemis-" Adelaide blinked a few times before realizing Artemis had already taken the box from her and already opened it.

"Thank you!" The bluenette happily said and plumped about four in her mouth. Exactly he next second after that her eyes widened and she threw it all out.

"Wah! Why are these chocolates _bitter_?" Artemis screeched before heading over to her school bag and hurriedly taking her bottle out and drinking everything in it. "Adelaide _what_ did you put in them?"

Adelaide looked confused and checked her recipe. "Coffee beans, why?"

Artemis' eyes practically gouged out at what she just heard. "Coffee? Adelaide its supposed to be _cocoa_!" she screeched and held her head. Argh! This is supposed to be basic knowledge for even an grade schooler! Adelaide dropped the book in surprise and almost didn't blink after what she just heard before getting dragged off by the girl to the their own dorm.

"..."

After a few hours, Adelaide finally finished making her second batch of chocolates, this time following the recipe that they borrowed from Daisy. The girl wiped the sweat off her forehead and took her apron off. Thankfully this one actually tasted like real chocolates this time.

Its just too bad that I won't be able to give it to him...

The girl heaved out another sigh and packed the chocolates in many other red boxes and packed them into a huge cardboard box before putting a sticker on it.

"Hopefully mama and papa will like them..." the girl smiled and filled to be sent to her home in Unova and of the academy as a return address. She smiled and looked over at the remaining three boxes of chocolates on her kitchen table and sighed.

_Now what am I suppose to do with these...?_

She sighed again before hearing someone knock on her door. _Its probably the twins... _Grabbing a box, she smiled and walked towards the door and opened it.

"Hey what are you gu-"

The girl blushed and cut herself off before hiding the box behind her back. Her turquoise eyes gazed at the floor as Tom stood in front of her door. Feeling her face heating up which she tried to hide using her bangs, hopefully they were long enough to do so….

"Hey Adelaide..." Tom smiled and pulled out a small lavender box with a blue lace ribbon. "Thought that I would give this to you before Valentines ended..."

Adelaide blushed as she took the present. "Um...thank you Tom..." she said and smiled a bit, blushing harder in the process. The boy smiled back and looked around her room when something caught his eye.

"Adelaide, what is that?"

Pointing to the kitchen, Adelaide blushed even harder as he saw what he was talking about.

The chocolates!

Adelaide let out a small yelp and blushed harder. "Well, they're..." Taking a deep breath, the girl closed her eyes and handed him the box she was holding which made Tom's eyes widened as he blushed a little, but thankfully weren't seen by the girl since her eyes were closed shut.

"Ha-happy Valentines Tom, I made some cho-chocolates for you-I mean all of my friends!" the girl stammered in a soft voice. Oh how embarrassing...Eyes still shut, she slowly felt the weight in her hands decreasing as Tom took the box.

"Tha-thank you Adelaide, I really appreciate it..." he said and smiled. Adelaide blushed even harder and nodded as she looked at the floor again.

"You-your welcome..." She murmured. "...and thanks for the gift..."

Tom nodded. "Yeah, well….goodnight then." he said and left. Slowly closing the door, Adelaide sighed in relief and sat on her bed as she slowly untied the ribbon off, her heart beating faster the closer she got to opening the lid and taking a huge breath.

_Well, here goes nothing..._

Adelaide let out a small gasp at what she saw, feeling her blush getting redder as she took out a heart shaped necklace from the box, smiling the blonde put it around her neck and got up to look at her reflection in the mirror.

Smiling, she took it off and placed it on a red velvet cushion inside a small jewelry box before changing into her nightgown and going to bed.

"Thank you Tom..." she smiled and slowly drifted off to sleep.

_I love you..._


	3. Chapter 3: A Spirality

**A/N: Sadly not as long as the other two, but I still hope you guys will enjoy this chapter! ^.^**

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><p><em>Can you still recall?<em>

_What I wanted to say then..._

_I still remember_

* * *

><p>Adelaide sighed. The girl, now 14 years old stroke the dark golden colored strand of hair off the side of her face and behind her ear before heaving out a small sigh as she sat in front of the fireplace in the Spitzfield mansion in Castelia, the fire burning brightly despite summer being just around the corner in Unova.<p>

Seated in a soft, plump arm chair, the young head had her long, and now slightly wavy hair in a loose ponytail, her dark turquoise eyes reflected the image in front of her in a way as if the fire was fiercely flickering and dancing inside them. The reddish orange dress that she wore was made for hot weather though the girl wasn't exactly feeling the warmth of the moment right now...

Its been almost five months since her mother died, leaving her to take charge and become the head of their family. Her father died a few months after she turned thirteen, so it was the first time she spent the month of love alone, _literally_ all by herself.

Selene went to visit her older sister Samantha, who just gave birth to her first child, a healthy red-haired baby girl whom she and her husband chose to name her "Haruka" to celebrate her birth being in the springtime, while her other maid Aria had to go and take care of her sick father and her younger siblings. But that's alright, she understood.

_Its not like I didn't have a slightly similar experience like that..._

The teen heaved out a small sigh, she wasn't lying though. Back when she found out her mother got a stroke from hearing about her father's sudden death and lying half-dead in a coma, clinically dead before finally passing away, giving the then thirteen year old no choice but to take her late father's place as head.

_But even so..._

She got to her feet and walked from her comfortable arm chair and towards the glass window at the side of the living room in the second floor of the mansion, where the stars were clearly shining brightly in the night sky, not a cloud in sight. She forced a smile as she saw two headlights of a motorcycle approaching her home and went downstairs to greet her guests.

Artemis quickly took off her helmet and went to greet her bestfriend with her usual tomboyish smile and a giant bear hug. Apollo took his own helmet off and smiled as he waved at the girl, parking the red motorbike with red and orange flames painted in the side before following the two girls inside.

"So how did it go?"

Artemis' smile suddenly turned to a frown and her eyes narrowed as she turned her gaze to the side. Apollo looked at his sneakers which made it obvious to what their answer was.

"Its alright..."

Artemis slowly nodded, still not looking at the girl in front of her now sitting in the same arm chair she sat on back a sigh as she placed her hands on top of the red box placed on her lap, with a white ribbon tied around it and carefully caressed it.

"I'm sorry Adelaide. We even contacted the academy if they know about where he is, but..." Apollo winced in pain and bit his lip as Artemis stepped on his foot. The younger twin was glaring at her twin from the corner of her eye. _You've said enough_. Her sharp eyes were clearly telling him to shut up and to keep quiet.

Adelaide forced another smile. "Don't worry about it you two, its not like there's no next time, right?"

The twins slowly turned away from her direction and looked at each other before looking at the ground which made Adelaide sigh but in a moment she went back to her usual cheerful personality, a gentle smile appearing on her lips.

"Thank you for trying though, I owe you one."

The twins looked at the ground and nodded, obviously not happy with the outcome of their search.

"Well its getting late, its best that you two go back now or else the general is going to get angry."

Artemis smiled a bit, resembling that of a smirk. "You know that old geezer doesn't care about me. He would have disowned me by now if it wasn't for you..."

Adelaide smiled before handing Artemis two more boxes from her mantel. "For the two of you.."

"Adelaide, you didn't have to..." Artemis said looking at the two boxes

"Don't worry, its not like Tom is suddenly going to show up out of nowhere..."

Artemis' shoulders suddenly stiffened. There it is again, _the look_. Every time she mentions him the bluenette suddenly gets all fired up and looks like she's about to bite someone's head off...

She never told her why though, but she would rather not know, Artemis might just destroy everything in sight in order to calm herself down when she does, and Adelaide surely does not want_ anoth_er mansion to be destroyed, again.

Adelaide let out a small sigh after she waved goodbye to the twins. While Apollo was busy preparing for their trip home, Artemis watched as Adelaide picked up the box and went into the kitchen. Artemis' expression saddened as her bestfriend took along with her a picture frame from her mantel before leaving with a heavy heart before finally getting on the bike and clinging on to her brother's waist

"Think she'll be okay?" Apollo asked as they finally got on the road. Artemis stayed quiet which made her fraternal twin sigh...

"Hey! You okay?"

Artemis still refused to answer, her shoulder length hair was flowing in the wind and buried her face onto his back and tightened her grip around her brother's waist. The 16 year old male heaved out a sigh. He knew full well that when his sister gets _this_ quiet there's no point in trying to make a conversation with her...

_Let her be Apollo, let her be..._

Both hands full, Adelaide placed the box next to the dining table and heaved out a loud sigh as she looked at the picture of when she and the twins were still in the academy. Apollo did a facepalm in the picture as Artemis was posed as if she was ready to beat Mike up as he tried to hit on Adelaide with Daisy sighing in the background. Adelaide smiled as she spotted the part where Tom was standing, softly caressing every detail of his chocolate brown hair before letting out another sigh and untying the ribbon around the box before opening it, revealing about a dozen heart shaped chocolates with a little chocolate iris flower carving at the top of each one.

She plumped one into her mouth and smiled, the sweet was delicious, with a creamy vanilla filling hidden in the middle. _Note to self: Put less vanilla in the filling next time_. But compared to her earlier works which were just plain nasty, and at one time, as embarrassing it might be, it was even inedible. Its been about four years since then, and four years since she's last seen the boy whom she first had a crush on, but...

_You're a foolish girl Adelaide, still not forgetting about him even until now..._

The girl placed her fingers on her lips and covered them, remembering the last day she saw him as their lips finally met, a moment she wished would've lasted even a bit longer than it did.

_But she was merely a child then..._

Yes, she was naive, She realized that a long time ago. Naive to have thought she could defeat Robert so quickly, naive to have believed that revenge was the answer to her brother's death, naive to have...to have thought that she could fall in love...

But this is who she was. Naive, clumsy, inexperienced, and even childish at times, even after four years, was she still the same girl who lost everything that she ever loved and fought for? The answer to that question was simply...

_No._

She's changed, she's grown up, both physically and mentally.

_But never emotionally..._

Still having the same emotions as the day she returned back home from the academy. To find her father and mother welcoming her back with open arms and she happily ran into them, the feeling of returning back to a place that you could call home. She'll never forget that.

_And I never will._

The hardships that her family has gone through, for more than 470 years, she will never abandon it. Never. And neither will she forget about her duty to her family. But her feelings were also important as well, the feeling of never giving up, and so...

"Maybe next year..."

Yes. Until she has learned to forget, she'll just have to cherish the moments she spent with the ones she love, and hopefully will be able to move on...

_If she ever does, that is..._

...

"Hey Nii-san?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think Adelaide would ever forget about him?"

Apollo turned to look at Artemis who was seated down in the couch in front of the tv. He was making a midnight snack for the both of them, seeing Artemis wasn't that good a cook and all and could probably blow up the kitchen including their house. But he didn't exactly get the point why he needed to bake for her since she was busy licking off the chocolate off her fingers from eating the chocolate Adelaide made for them.

"Why'd you ask?"

"Nothing, just wondering..."

Artemis' eyes were glued to the tv, which was pretty rare to see seeing as she doesn't like to watch any form of entertainment other than boxing matches or the like. But since she had her sweets she must have been pretty much content.

"Well...wait, are you referring to the_ real _Adelaide or the dictator-like Ice Princess of the Battle Company?" Apollo asked as he went back to mixing the cookie dough.

Artemis turned around and glared at her brother's back, her eyes sharp and serious. "I'm not joking Apollo."

The boy heaved out a small sigh, hopefully not one that she would hear. The only times his sister would call him by his first name was when she was really serious, or in a bad mood.

"I'm just messing with you. But if it was the so-called Ice Princess then yes, of course she would forget about him, I'm betting that she wouldn't even have feelings for him in the first place if she was that dictator."

Artemis nodded before going back to the tv. "But she's not like that, only the media makes her look that way." The girl bit her lip and stood up, fists raised into the air. "Those guys….Seriously, Adelaide didn't even do anything to them, sure she's strict, but she's not a merciless person! Geez! How can they be so stupid not to realize that she's only doing her job! She's not a dictator! Its not her fault those dogs aren't doing their jobs well!"

Apollo sweatdropped as he watched his twin sister rant as he was about to place the cookies in the oven. "Come on Arts, that's enough. At this rate you're not getting any cookies from me today..."

"Aww! But Nii-san its Valentines! You're such a big meanie!" Artemis pouted as plumped back down on the sofa. Apollo smirked and quietly let out a chuckle. His sister could be so childish at times, guess some things never change...

"But..."

Artemis let out a small sigh of relief, hoping her brother didn't hear it. "Adelaide..."

"Yeah, she's not ever going to forget someone as special to her as he is huh?"

The bluennette nodded as she changed the channel to the Grand Festival in Hoenn. Her gaze narrowed as she looked at the brown-haired male teen on the pedestal, his jade green eyes was the same as she remembered, which made her fists clench.

"And we proudly present this year's Hoenn Grand Festival Ribbon cup to the winner: Thomas Thu-"

Artemis pushed the off button on the remote before the announcer could continue and placed it on the couch before getting up. Of all the things to happen today, she didn't even want to hear the name of her childhood rival, especially today of all days.

"Why didn't you tell her then?"

Taking her ponytail off, the girl walked past her brother who was taking his mittens off and went over to the board on the wall of the kitchen, there were reminders and pictures posted there, and one of those pictures was one of a younger Artemis and Apollo together with Adelaide back when they were still playing together as children together

Her expression softened as she turned to look at the picture right next to it, with her mother and father was together with Adelaide's parents and a teenage blonde boy, with eyes the color of sapphires with a striking resemblance to Adelaide who was still a baby being held by him In the picture.

"Because I don't want her to get hurt..."

...

...

...

...

..._again at least._


	4. Chapter 4 Pt 1: No Regrets

**A/N: Ow...my back hurts from working on this one for so long. But without further ado I present you Chapter 4! =D**

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><p><em>I'm right here waiting<em>

_Why is it you can't find me?_

_"Tom...I still love you."_

* * *

><p>Artemis' eyebrow kept on twitching as she sat cross-legged on the sofa beside Adelaide, glaring at the brown haired teenager sitting beside her brother on the couch opposite to them. Apollo could only roll his eyes as his twin sister barely even blinked as Adelaide looked at the floor, trying not to meet her bestfriend's somewhat violent gaze...<p>

Tom, on the other hand, wasn't even at the least intimidated by the girl, which was to be expected from him actually, but since its been more than six years he might have at least expected that Artemis could do a lot better than that...or so he thought.

On the other hand, it was doing quite well on Adelaide, even without looking at her direction, Adelaide could feel chills running up and down her spine as being near the obviously annoyed, and not to mention very angry girl sitting _right next_ to her was starting to making her feel uncomfortable, even more than she already was...

Apollo tried not to heave out a sigh. To think that his twin sister still had a grudge towards him even after six years…its got to be her one of her longest records yet, well probably not the longest since they are a lot more people she's angry at, Robert would probably be at the top of her list, but then again there was always Phillip de Partridge who used to be a senior in the same school the twins went to before they started working in the military,_ officially_ at least. But that was about...

_Three years ago._

Artemis' eyes suddenly widened at the though and in a blink of an eye which inevitably caught the attention of the boy sitting directly in front of her, his facial features_ almost _exactly mirrored hers, if only it wasn't for his sharper and narrower eyes and that calm but sometimes, annoying as it was, his more mature like expression that was the complete opposite of her tomboyish and childish actions.

_You okay?_

Artemis nodded in response to their eye contact. Even without words, they could tell what the other was thinking even with just a small peek at the other's face. To them it was a special bond, and not because they were twins, it was because they only had each other to rely and trust each other's feelings on.

_Too bad it wasn't the same for their secrets..._

After gazing into his sisters eyes, Apollo finally looked away with a content nod and went back to listening to his sister barking her orders to Adelaide's maid, Selene who was in charge of preparing the lady's afternoon tea today, and of course she didn't expect to have so many guests join in as well.

"I'll have some of the almond cookies that you made for us last time Selene, and...uh...maybe a mocha and chocolates cake, and with some vanilla icing on top, and don't put in too much chocolate syrup please, have it made light and smooth, like in the book that I let you borrow a few weeks ago, you do remember it right, Selene?"

"Of course Artemis-san. Anything else you may want to add to that?"

"Hm..." Artemis looked as if she were trying to concentrate_ real_ hard, probably thinking of what other dessert that she will obviously take a while to decide on to devour in a blink of an eye. Apollo held back a sigh as he rolled his eyes over that thought.

"Nah, nothing else today."

Adelaide looked at the girl sitting next to her in surprise. Artemis just let out a small sigh as she watched Apollo let out a small chuckle which made her roll her eyes. _Oh Artemis, you really don't want to embarrass Adelaide don't you?_ Her fraternal twin laughed as he gazed upon her sister's shoulder, it was covered by the sleeved of her jacket, but he knew that it was there, half of a single mark they both shared as servants of the house of Spitzfield.

"O-okay then...what about you then Apollo-san?"

Selene turned to Apollo who ordered his usual snacks composing of some oatmeal cookies and a custard cake together with his usual cup of unsweetened milk tea. His twin rolled her eyes, how her brother never gets tired from eating the same snacks for more than five years now, she'll never know…..

While the two siblings were busy with their own thoughts, Adelaide couldn't help but feel nervous as Tom sat directly _in front_ of her, It wasn't her fault, she was shy, especially when it comes to these kind of situations. And worse of all, there was that memory of when they...

"Ojou-sama. Ojou-sama! OJOU-SAMA!"

Adelaide was finally able to snap back to Castelia as Aria stood in front of her, carrying a plate filled with cakes and drinks. The auburn haired woman looked at her mistress eye to eye, which sort of scared her a bit though it was obvious that she was concerned about her.

"Ojou-sama, you're cake is ready." Selene calmly said and placed her eggnog mouse cake with almond dacquiose on the table together with her tea, well at least Tom thought it was tea, except for that part that is was a lot more colored yellow like lemonade or a few drops of honey mixed with water or so.

"Ojou-sama, would you like another cup of tea later on?" Selene asked, her eyes full of concern as Adelaide shook her head in response before taking a sip of her tea. "Are you sure about that?"

"Yes Selene, don't worry about..."

All of a sudden Adelaide covered her mouth and let out a small painful cough, her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to control her breathing. Artemis almost dropped her plate if it wasn't for her brother who skillfully grabbed it and placed it on the table as she went over to hold the girl's free hand, placing two fingers on her wrist as if she was checking her pulse.

"I'm fine Artemis...I just drank it a little too fast that's all…" she said and the bluenette reluctantly let go of her grip and sat back down on the sofa as Adelaide went back to drinking her tea, taking a huge gulp this time as her breathing finally calmed down.

"You okay?" Tom asked as he looked at her eye to eye which made her blush a deep crimson.

"Y-yeah..."

"Your face is heating up…" he said and went over to his side and placed his hand on her forehead to check her temperature which just made her face flush even more as she just had a clear view of the close-up of his face. She couldn't help but noticed how much his looks…changed over the years.

"Well it doesn't look like you have a fever..."

Right now it would be a lot better if she did. If she could she would have scampered away from her seat to hide her obvious blush right now, but he didn't seem to notice it, more or less he was more fixated on her well-being that he didn't even noticed that she starting to stare at him...

Those jade green eyes seemed to reflect her as she noticed how much sharper they've gotten, his hair also got a bit spikier, not that it was flat to begin with but it seemed hard to compare it with his old look. Not only that but it also seemed his skin got a little bit more tanned, probably from journeying around the regions or so, and are those muscles she's seeing...?

"Ahem!" Artemis coughed as she stood on the side, kneeling over so that they could both sense the warning for him to back away, Adelaide could tell that her best friend was glaring at him from the corner of her eyes as she finally stood up straight, with her hands on her waist and an annoyed expression to boot.

Adelaide turned her head away and brushed some of her hair behind her ear as she tried to hide her embarrassed face away from Tom, who shot a look at Artemis before going back to his seat. Apollo handed his sister back her cake which she engulfed in her mouth in just a matter of seconds, chewing it slowly so it was obvious that she wasn't happy.

_Arceus Artemis, you're _never_ happy when Tom's around._

Apollo rolled his eyes at that thought. It was true though, even back when they were kids those two got along just like cats and dogs, with Tom being the quiet one without a single care in the world that she hates him and that his sister was being the over exaggerating one, as always. But that wasn't the thing that Artemis should've been concerned about right now...

While Artemis was having a 'one-sided glaring contest' at Tom, or that's at least what Apollo called it. Adelaide's gaze was on the floor, her sad expression clearly reflected on her cup of tea as she tried not to have any eye contact from anyone in the room, her bangs shadowed her face.

She was supposed to be happy, things were finally going to be the same as it was six years ago back when they were still in the academy, and yet, she was probably the only one not rejoicing with the others, even if they were doing it in their own, slightly…different and unique ways.

But this day didn't start out so well either...

* * *

><p>"Ojou-sama! Your guests are here!" Aria called out from outside the girl's bedroom door. Adelaide was busy reading a new book that she just bought, it wasn't very thick so she was almost done reading it. It wasn't that she didn't have anything else to do, but it seemed that reading stories about alternate dimensions always seemed to keep her mind occupied, but it didn't exactly helped brighten up her mood.<p>

"Coming!" she yelled out as she fixed her dress before tying up her hair in a neat braid and straightened out her lilac dress. She didn't like wearing anything flashy or something like that, she'd prefer things much simpler, things that actually looked "normal" in everyday society. She knew she was supposed to be a rich aristocrat and all, but she would rather dress as plainly as she should, even if it was greeting some..._not_ so normal guests to her house.

The girl got to her feet and opened her door to see the brown haired maid smile at her before walking off to the living room of the Spitzfield estate to see more than a dozen teenage girls, some about her age but most of them were about two or three years older than her giggling as they sat on the sofas, their personal maids standing in a corner quietly watching their mistresses talk about complete and utter nonsense.

Apparently all of them stopped as the young head went in, some of them giving her looks and looking at her from head to toe, probably wondering why she wore such simple and normal looking clothes that would have belonged in the dumpster of every other noble family's out there in the whole wide universe.

The girls were wearing colorful dresses filled with all sorts of accessories and jewels, wearing enough make up to make it look like they were much older than their real age. Arceus, why must she even attend these meetings? Sure it was nice of her uncle, the current head of the main family, to arrange meetings so that the heiresses will learn to…get along more, but this was outrageous! He_ knew _that they didn't like her, not that she felt like they hated her or anything…but why at her house? He knew that she didn't let just _anyone_ enter into her estate, especially since the media would go through drastic measures just to find out where she was currently living in, which she would rather not go though, _again_.

She looked around the room, hoping to find that familiar face that she was sure was having an even worse time here more than she was. And sure enough, the blonde found her leaning against the window, hopefully the curtains' shadows kept her hidden there well enough not to be noticed by the other ladies, but Adelaide knew better.

Artemis watched Adelaide enter the room from a safe distance, she can't help but smile at how simple minded that girl was sometimes, wearing a striped patterned lavender sun dress and slightly high heels, Aria by her side, but one thing still bothered her. Adelaide, her bestfriend didn't look very well that morning, she could see that same confident spark in her eyes together with a smile on her calm face, and yet there was something missing other than her usual cheerful expression.

The blonde teen smiled at her direction, some of the other girls turned towards the bluenette's direction as well so that she could see the pure distaste in their eyes. She should've known they would react like this, well she kind of expected it though, besides everyone in the room, except her, were wearing dresses, skirts, make-up….okay except for Adelaide, high heels…but worst if all, most of them were wearing..._pink_. For crying out loud even just hearing that color would have made her mind explode.

_Argh! Why must these meetings have to be so girly? I would rather jump down a cliff than attend if it wasn't just to support Adelaide!_

The other girls however stood up and smiled, some were probably forced though. Adelaide smiled back before doing a curtsy, her lilac dress only slightly lifted as she gracefully crossed her legs. The girl looked all around the room, recognizing her relatives faces, as if she was checking if everyone was present.

"Its been a while Adelaide-chan..." a young petite woman said, walking towards Adelaide's the direction and the girl smiled. Artemis gritted her teeth at the sight of the girl. Her waist-length strawberry blonde hair was wavy in a way that looked as she had gotten a perm, her blue eyes were crystal clear, but Artemis knew better than to compare it to a beautiful gem, because it was probably the closest genetic trait she shared with the person she hated the most.

Rosalyn Caroline Hildegarde Solestein Eragor, Robert's older sister. Thank Arceus she didn't look much like her half-brother unless Artemis would've have a harder time fighting the urge to attack her. She was wearing a ruby red shoulderless gown which was dangerously lying low enough to show her cleavage_. What a show-off..._Artemis couldn't help but roll her eyes at that thought. She didn't even cared about her own chest size though, since it was flat and she would preferred it to stay that way, cause if there was one thing she hated the most, it was being girly.

She shuddered at that thought, just thinking about it made her skin crawl. Artemis reverted her gaze back to Adelaide, the girl was smiling and the older girl smiled back, probably forced though. "How have you been then? I hope that your health hasn't gotten worse over in the past few months my dear..."

The spark in Rosalyn's eyes were of pure distaste, Adelaide recognize that look far too well to misinterpret it, its not like almost everyone in the same room didn't look at her almost the exact same way. But she didn't care, she was used to it. Besides she was practically the only one there, except for Artemis, who wasn't dressed up as grand as the other female heiresses, and she was just fine with it.

_Oh what a bad liar you are Adelaide..._

Artemis tried her best to stay out of sight as the group of girls kept chatting, keeping Adelaide out of the conversation, as always. The girl was just silently sitting in the corner, a smile on her face as she just listened to them chatting and giggling non-stop. The bluenette tried not to bite her lip as she sometimes noticed the other girls giving nasty looks over their whispering and giggling as she straightened out her black vest and folded the sleeves of her blue dress shirt, as if she was about to pick a fight.

As if on cue, Rosalyn suddenly stood up and walked over to Adelaide and sat next to her on the plump couch. She crossed her legs which made her underwear slightly visible. This time the bluenette definitely felt sick, as if she was about to puke at Rosalyn's actions. Who could blame her? In a word, to her it was simply_...disgusting_. Adelaide on the other hand, seemed fine with it, yeah right like that's gonna happen...

"So then I heard that you haven't been leaving Castelia lately?" she asked, twirling her hair. Adelaide nodded in response, she didn't even bother to face the older female as she looked at the ground. The bluenette watching from the corner of the room blinked. She swore she almost saw Rosalind smirk for a second there, but then again it could have been her mind playing tricks on her...

"Well then, you won't be able to catch up to the deadline if you keep on acting like that..." Rosalyn whispered in her ear, and smirked a bit. Adelaide's eyes suddenly widened at the girl's words, her hands clenched on her dress to the point where she almost tore the fabric, she looked as if she was about to cry, but she bit back the urge to let the tears form in her eyes.

Artemis noticed and continued to watch the scene, her hands gripped on the side of her single-tail whip, the handle was made of platinum with a small iris flower surrounding a crescent moon symbol made out of silver was carefully carved on the surface, while the tail made up of leather, the tip being rubber to deliver a very painful slash, it even capable to wrap around the limbs, body or neck, and it was more than long enough to do so as well.

"Come on Adelaide, if you're not able to find a fiancee before you turn eighteen..."

"I know that." Adelaide butted in which made Rosalyn blink a few times.

"Well then, if that's the case then have you already found one?"

Adelaide tightened her grip around her skirt, her bangs shadowed her bangs.

"Oh." was all that Rosalyn managed to say, but the smirk on her face was enough to make Artemis feel alarmed and gripped onto the handle on her whip. "So then you better prepare yourself, I heard that there are a lot of heirs that would be interested in you..."

"Excuse me?"

Rosalyn giggled. "You mean you don't know? Well...maybe not as much as they are interested in me, but..." she held up her gloved covered right hand, and on her ring finger was a gold ring with a small rose carved ruby on the middle. The other girls stopped talking and all stared wide eyed at the ring before letting out a slightly belated gasp and clapped, congratulating the girl. It was obvious to what it was, sure the other girls were wearing rings as well, but this one was no where near as special. It was an engagement ring.

"Congratulations then." Adelaide smiled a bit at the girl who was puffing out her chest to show off together with her pride as a woman upon getting the ring. "That means...Phillip's your fiancee now then..." the girl's voice was shaky. She should have expected that Rosalyn would be able to grab any boy she wanted. Phillip de Partridge is, well was used to be her cousin Camilla's admirer, he stalked her everywhere, but now that she...now that she was gone, the young head guessed that he decided to try to like someone else.

"I can't believe he was able to forget about Camilla so easily..." Adelaide's was beginning to eat her words the very second she said her thoughts aloud. Rosalyn glared at her a bit intimidatingly.

"Well yes, he did lament on...Camilla's death..." Rosalyn muttered before rolling her eyes. "but of course, no man would be able to resist my charms...besides that woman was nothing compared to me..." she smiled. Adelaide frowned. Camilla wasn't only her cousin, she was also her teacher...her friend...her idol...the only one who praised her for being who she was...!

"Anyway, do you already have someone in mind to become your fiancee?" she continued. Adelaide stayed quiet. _Yes, but why would you care?_ she wanted to say that in her face, but the words just seemed to clump up at her throat, unable to escape her mouth.

"If you can keep quiet like that then that means you haven't..." the older heiress heaved out a small sigh and smiled sweetly, the tone of her voice changed to a kinder one as she said, "Do you want me to help you decided then dear?"

Adelaide's eyes widened as she turned her gaze to Rosalyn, her face seemed sweet, but her gaze was cold and merciless. "Well I mean, just _look_ at you. You're not anything that special Adelaide-chan. There's no way anyone's going to notice you if you keep on wearing..." she eyed the girl's sundress, eyes filled with disgust.

"But I don't want to get into an arranged-"

"Hold your temper my dear, in all circumstances a lady does not raise her voice neither does she shout." Rosalyn chimed. The young head felt the urge to slap her, but she knew better than to cause a scene. Yes, and so does butting in...

"Besides an arranged marriage would be perfect for you. And besides it would teach you not to hang out with..lets say...you're commoner friends." Adelaide's fists curled. Commoner friends, for short she was referring to Artemis and Apollo and...

_Tom_.

"That's enough." the blonde snapped, her voice was fierce, powerful. It was completely..._un_lady-like.

"What was that?" Rosalyn turned towards Adelaide, she was unhappy. And Adelaide wanted her to stay that way, but too bad she wasn't finished yet...and neither was Artemis.

"You don't have to make my mistress repeat that twice Rosalyn..." the bluennette snapped as she walked towards the two girls, the other looked at their direction, their expressions completely confused as they watched Rosalyn slowly getting to her feet, her pink 4-inch high heels made her only a bit taller than Artemis, but height wasn't didn't even intimidate the bluenette even in the slightest.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't think transsexuals were allowed in here." The other girls giggled in agreement. Artemis grit her teeth and drew out her whip, the look in her eyes made her point clear: _Shut up, or I'll whip you as if you were all overly dressed cattle._

Rosalyn bit her lip as her maids drew out their swords and the girl smirked. "Picking up a fight here Vaciller? That's unwise you know, seeing most of my best handmaidens are here..." The whip handler bit her lip and tightened her grip on the handle before she heard Adelaide's voice.

"Unwise?" the girl snapped as she stood up. She didn't even had to fix her dress as she did, her turquoise eyes locked its gaze at the heiress which made her flinch. "Rosalyn, with all due respect please do not cause any trouble while you are in _my_ household." then she looked at Artemis. "And Artemis please withdraw your weapon, there is no need to use violence."

"But Adelaide...!" she cut herself off as Adelaide looked at her with a face that she knew too well and she understood what it meant. _Please Artemis, I don't think I'll be able to handle this if you cause any more trouble..._ Artemis sighed, sometimes she wished her bestfriend wasn't such a peace maker like she was.

"I'm sorry I didn't hear you right. Besides I'm not the one who's causing the trouble here. Seriously..." she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Branch family members are such a meddlesome bunch. They don't even know when they're in the presence of higher nobles than they are..." she sighed.

"What did you just say...?" Artemis gritted her teeth. Branch families, she was a member of the House of Vaciller, the personal messengers of the Spitzfields who have swore loyalty to them which made them a part of their branch families. But with the way she said it, it was as if she was insulting all the members of every branch family, even her family's own helpers...! "So you're saying even your own..." Adelaide cut herself off, unable to continue her sentence. Rosalyn nodded as she placed her hand on top of the brooch of her family's crest

"They're such a third rate bunch you know. Always acting as if they're the ones who have power instead of looking up to their real masters. I mean, even my own servants think of me as spoiled." And with that comment she glared at her handmaidens on the other corner of the room, unable to speak up for themselves.

_Please Rosalyn, you don't know how much of a spoiled brat you're sounding like right now_. Artemis rolled her eyes before tightening her grip on the handle of her whip.

"Adelaide, you can get so much more by an arranged marriage. And you wouldn't even had to worry about your family's lineage either, believe me it would be so much easier..."

"Didn't you hear her the first time Rosalyn?" Artemis voice bellowed. She couldn't stand it anymore. "Adelaide still has two more years. Can you at least shut up until she turns eighteen for crying our loud?" Rosalyn bit her lip as the other girls gasp at the bluenette's sudden outburst.

"Shut up?" Rosalyn bit her lip, practically ruining her lip gloss as she did. "Artemis do you have any idea who you are raising your voice to-"

"The heiress of the renowned Eragor House yeah yeah I know..."

"Well. Then you must know how offending..." Rosalyn's face was so red because of anger she looked like she was about to explode. Man Artemis would've paid a lot of money to see that.

"Oh I'm not trying to offend you. I'm just stating the truth."_ No, I'm really trying to offend you_. Artemis smirked at that thought.

"In a _very_ offending manner." Rosalyn snapped, her eyes dangerous like a hawk's.

"Well I am so sorry milady who's got no sense of humor." Artemis snickered. Rosalyn gritted her teeth and pulled out a small dagger from underneath her dress' skirt, which was probably strapped around her leg. The bluenette smirked as she pulled out her whip again, eager for a fight.

"You two stop this right now!" Adelaide's eyes were serious as she walked over to the two of them. "Rosalyn, I'm so sorry, but I think you have to leave now." she turned to glare at the older girl. Rosalyn looked as if she was about to chew Artemis' head off, but she nodded anyway.

"I"m so sorry about my friend's actions..." Adelaide bowed her head to the other girls, including Rosalyn. Artemis bit her lip, Adelaide wasn't the one who was supposed to be apologizing, she was. But still Rosalyn went too far...

"Hmph! You better teach your servant to respect others, and while you're at it, why don't you teach her proper etiquette as well. Its disgusting to see a girl wear a tuxedo when going to an all girls meeting don't you know." Rosalyn said as she looked at the bluenette from head to toe, she knew she there wasn't anything girly about her in any way. Even her short choppy bluish black hair which had turned to its original black state since she had been inside away from any strong light source for so long was tied in a high ponytail to make it seem as if she looked like a boy, and she didn't care.

"I'm only trying to help and yet you had to be so abrupt." Adelaide sadly nodded. Yeah right. Artemis crossed her arms before the heiress stopped on her heels, turning around to face the younger girl, pure disgust in her eyes."Believe me hon, if you kept hanging around such third rate nobles, then..." she glared at Artemis before turning back to Adelaide. "No wonder he never came back for you."

Adelaide's eyes widened as she felt the tears forming in her eyes. Artemis wanted to pull out the rapiers hanging on the walls and charge at the heiress like a mad beast, but the other girls had already shut the door the moment she pulled one out.

"Artemis, don't." The bluenette turned towards Adelaide, her face covered by her bangs. "Please..." Her eyes widened as she dropped the rapier on the ground before walking over to the girl. "Robert told her then..." Artemis stopped in her tracks as she watched Adelaide placed her right hand on her chest, feeling the texture of something spherical inside, a necklace.

"Adelaide..." she sighed. "Come on don't give me that face. He said he'd come back to visit right! Sure its been what...five, six years? He must be busy! Wait! I didn't mean that kind of busy! I..."Artemis was at a complete loss for words. She's never been good at comforting people, even Adelaide, she just knew how to make things worse, for everyone.

"No, its okay Artemis. I understand..." the young head heaved out a small sigh. "I'm going out for some fresh air..." she muttered as Selene and Aria bowed. Artemis just stood there, not knowing what to do as she watched the girl smile and wave as she closed the door from the outside, and that just made her even more guilty as she remembered watching her rival winning the Grand Festival two years back.

"I should have told her a long time ago..." was all Artemis could manage to mutter to herself as she gritted her teeth before stomping her foot on the floor as she cursed.

* * *

><p>Adelaide didn't know how she ended up going to the park, it was as if her feet led her there by herself. she sighed as she took of the ribbon that held up her braid, letting her hair flow gently with the wind as she reached the lake. She looked down and saw herself smiling in the reflection.<p>

Long but slightly wavy dark blonde hair cascaded down her back and some separated her her shoulders, her turquoise eyes had a childish look to them, well it didn't bother her much, besides her height made her look as if she was fourteen rather than sixteen. She heaved out a small sigh as she pulled out another ribbon out of her pockets and started tying her hair into twin tails.

"You look like such a little girl Adelaide..." she said in a poor imitation of Rosalyn's voice. She sighed, she couldn't help but feel as if she was right though. What Rosalyn said...

_No wonder he never came back for you_

Tears started flowing down her cheeks and she quickly wiped them off with the back of her hand. Yes, she was right, Rosalyn was always right about her. She wasn't that good looking, she had to agree with that. Looking at her reflection, she tried to compare it with Camilla.

She was just plain gorgeous, and the best part there was she never even tried to become beautiful. She was beautiful for being who she was, for being true to herself. And her? Well she tried her best to do so too, but she didn't want the spotlight.

All her life she tried to watch from the sidelines, learning by observing others, following whatever orders were given to her if she thought they were right and just. But above all she was never able to change, and that's why so many people were criticizing her. She was the same shy, naive and lonely Adelaide that she was the same day she entered the Academy, the same Adelaide who was naive enough to believe every word anybody said, and she hated herself for that.

Getting on her feet, she picked up a pebble and threw it across the lake, it didn't even jump on the surface once, it just sunk, the same way that she did back at the meeting. She wasn't even able to talk back, she just let their words get to her, and it hurt her.

"You are an idiot Adelaide." she said and threw another pebble. Just like the first one it sunk right in. Adelaide sighed as she sat down on the grass,taking off her heels as she let her feet feel the ground tickle against her feet before hugging her legs and burying her face in between them.

"Oh? What do we have here?" she heard a voice say from behind her. The girl bit her lip as she raised her head a bit. The owner's voice was definitely a man. Just great, she didn't need to have someone flirting on her just after. she let that happy thought she muttered out sink in.

"Hm...you do know that its not safe to stay here all by yourself at this hour..." he continued. Adelaide bit her lip. Oh why can't people just leave her alone. Wasn't it obvious that she _wanted_ to be alone by herself here? Or was it that most men nowadays are just too dense to notice?

She didn't have the urge to turn around and tell him to get lost. There was no way that she'd let anyone find out that Adelaide Olivia Lizleihi von Spitzfield was alone sulking at the lakeside in an almost empty park. "And why do you care? Its not like you would care about someone you don't even know..."

For a moment there she thought she heard him make a sound similar to a small choke, but it could have been just her imagination. "Um...I know this is kind of personal but..." his voice was shaky, but at the same time it seemed kind of familiar, but her mind just can't seem to process from where exactly.

"Uh...is your name...by chance...Adelaide?" Her eyes widened and she gritted her teeth. Oh great, I'm in trouble now...

"So what if it is?" was all that she managed to say. "It is quite a common name you know."

"Well yes, but...um..." the voice stopped and she could feel him eyeing her uncomfortably. Adelaide hugged her legs closer to her as she looked at her reflection on the lake's surface. Oh how much does she hate being recognized. It was completely destroying her privacy. She took a deep breath.

"Now if you're done talking would you please leave me alone." she muttered and buried her face between her legs again as a powerful breeze flew by letting her hair tried not to let her tears drop down her face as she started crying again, quietly this time.

"Come on now, pretty girls shouldn't be crying..." he said, his voice was calm and kind, just like how her older brother used to comfort her when she was sad. She wiped the tears away with her hands.

"I'm not crying...and .?docid=26567681'm not pretty either..." she was barely able to mutter in a single sentence.

"Who says you aren't?"

"Flirting isn't going to work on me you know." her eyes widened as she heard him chuckle. His laugh, she was sure she's heard it before...

"You sounded a bit like Artemis there you know." he chuckled again. This time the girl was trying very hard not to resisti turning around and ask him how the heck he knew her bestfriend's name.

"How did you...?" The sixteen year old's eyes widened as she felt his hand stroke her cheek to make her face him. Adelaide felt herself heating up, she was sure she was blushing right now as she faced a young man kneeling over hair. He had spiky chocolate brown hair and kind eyes the color of jade.

"Long time no see Adelaide." he smiled as he brushed her tears away which just made the girl blush even harder. She didn't even dare blink as she his eyes gazed into hers before she saw him handing her something white from the corner of her eyes. "Hope you still like them. Iris flowers I mean." Adelaide blushed harder as she took them out of his hand with a confused look on her eyes. "How..."

"Apollo told me they were your favorite. Well that was still at the Academy though, but I just gave a good guess that you still liked them either way..." he scratched the back of his neck as Adelaide carefully studied him from top to bottom. No way...It couldn't be...he changed _this_ much...?

"Tom?"

He nodded and smiled.

"I'm back Adelaide."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And...I'm going to cut the chapter here, cause its already too long. The next chapter would be Chapter 4.5 since its the direct continuation of this chapter. Hoped you like this one! And please don't forget to review! =3**

**~Leaf~**


	5. Chapter 4 Pt 2: Her Wish

**A/N: Did you guys miss me? =3**

**Nah I'm just joking...anyway sorry to keep you all waiting, I was busy with clearance week, which I** **was supposed to be finished with more than a week ago, so obviously the chapter was postponed because of that...I greatly apologize for the delay. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy reading Chapter 4.5(yes as in the second part of chapter 4) and reviews will be greatly appreciated! ^^**

* * *

><p><em>She is still grieving...<em>

_With nobody else to blame..._

_Then you are the cause.  
><em>

* * *

><p>"Selene are you <em>sure<em> you haven't seen her anywhere in the estate?" Artemis asked in a rather loud voice. Both of her hands were on the table, fists clenched. The red haired maid nodded as she watched the bluenette unbutton her vest and taking her dress shirt off, revealing a black sleeveless turtleneck shirt underneath. "A hundred percent sure?"

"Artemis-san, I've checked her office, her bedroom, her garden, the library, the dining hall, the warehouse. the attic, the basement, the archery range, the sword arena-"

"Okay okay I get it!" she heaved out a loud sigh as she pulled out her cell phone, of all the things she needed to hear, it definitely wasn't Selene talking on and on about the different rooms of Adelaide's more than four hundred yard estate. "Nii-san? Yes, its me? Oh don't play games! Arceus Apollo I'm the only one who would call you that! This isn't funny...Its Artemis for crying out loud!" Selene shook her head. Artemis' voice was so loud she bet it could have been heard outside...

"Yeah yeah...well are you done back at the office? Hm...okay. Can you come over to Adelaide's. Yes the meeting is over. I know it was suppose to end at eight pm. Well no, I did_ not_ force them out..." Artemis rolled her eyes but the next second after she gritted her teeth. "You don't believe me do you?"

_Silence._

"...Nii-san...D-did you...DID YOU JUST HANG UP ON ME?" Artemis shouted into her phone again in a rage. Selene covered her ears._ What a hassle..._ The redhead sighed as she walked towards the front door and went outside, leaving Artemis alone in the house still ranting as if her brother was still on the heaved out another sigh as she stood at the front porch, waiting for her mistress to come back home.

Minutes pass, then hours, the red haired maid shifted her gaze to the sun setting in the distance. "Oh Adelaide-sama, where did you go?" she turned around as she sighed again before hearing the sounds of footsteps approaching. "Adelaide-sama! Where have you-"

"Whoa! S-Selene! Its just me!"

Selene's eyes widened before her lashes hid most of her eyes as Apollo stood before her, waving his arms around in surprise to the maid's actions. She heaved out a sigh as she looked behind the brown haired boy in front of her, hoping to at least see her mistress' shadow there, no such luck.

Apollo sighed as Selene opened the door for him below following him from behind as they entered the manor, only to be greeted by an obviously annoyed Artemis, her leather whip drawn as she walked towards them. "Took you long enough..." she said coldly.

"What happened anyway? Don't tell me Adelaide ran away _again_...?" Artemis bit her lower lip.

"No, she definitely did not." she snapped. Her hair, now having returned to its original raven black state, was barely cascaded down her shoulders considering its length. Seeing how messy it was, her twin brother couldn't help but wonder if her bad habit of running her hands through her hair every time she felt nervous was the cause or if she just laid down on the sofa the whole afternoon.

"So where is she then?"

"How the heck am I supposed to know?"

The boy rolled his eyes before turning to Selene. "Where's Aria?"

"She's gone to search around Castelia for Adelaide-sama." she replied and Apollo nodded before turning back to his sister. Her dark blue-green eyes had been turning a lot sharper recently, not like those adorable huge eyes that he once gazed on almost every minute on every day of the week.

"Any idea where she went?" Selene shook her head.

"She's been gone for more than five hours now." _Oh great, just great._ Apollo rolled his eyes again before sighing. He slung his bag over and placed it on the coffee table, unzipping it and rampaging around his stuff. He grunted as he checked his stuff before turning to his sister with a look that seemed to resemble a glare.

"You messed with my stuff again didn't you?" he asked, his annoyed tone perfectly matched his twin sister's. Artemis shrugged which just made him bite his lip as he pulled out an almost empty plastic bag, with the only things being inside were a small computer chip and a gray walkie talkie that wasn't even his.

"Um...well..." she stammered as she run her hands through her bangs. _Arceus Artemis..._Apollo sighed before putting his things back in his bag. _I can't even leave you alone for a few hours without you getting into trouble..._he grumbled at that thought. Hey, it was true.

He took out his things; some documents, his lunch box, his and Artemis' Pokegears, some extra Pokeballs and potions and the plastic bag. _Gah its not in here_... "Selene could you open the storehouse for me?" Apollo asked as checked to see if there was anything else that he missed, not facing the red haired maid as he continued.

"O-of course Apollo-san. I'll go get the keys first." Selene bowed before leaving the room, leaving the twins alone. Artemis watched her brother put his things back before going to sit on the sofa. Apollo sighed as he finally finished and walked towards his sister, his hands in his pockets.

"Now then Arts, mind explaining what happened at the girls' meeting...?"

* * *

><p>Adelaide was blushing as she walked side by side with Tom, her face shadowed by her bangs as she slowly inched closer to him as they walked towards her home. She looked at him from the corner of her eyes, slowly eying the boy's face.<p>

He has always been taller than her, even when they were kids she was about 3 inches small than him, but now he seemed to be about half a foot taller, but she shouldn't be surprised, after all, she was barely even 5 foot 2. Reverting her gaze back to the ground, her hands squeezed together as she glided through the streets of Castelia, a lady was never meant to walk, but glide, as graceful as a swan, to move with finesse, to be a good young lady that never thought for herself and to have her entire life, including her future, planned out for her...

_...But she begged to differ._

On the other hand, Tom kept looking around them, trying to focus on anything but the fact that the girl walking beside him was actually the Adelaide that he knew six years ago. It was kind of hard to believe, but then again there was no mistaking those bright crystal clear turquoise eyes, though her hair has gotten a lot longer and maybe a bit curled at the end, it was still the same warm shade of sunlight that he had so frequently gazed upon when they were still children studying at the academy, and yet...why is it that he can't look at her in the same light that he had like back then?

"Um...hey Adelaide?" Tom began, finally breaking the ice.

"Hm?" Adelaide smiled, but she didn't face him, her gaze still on the ground. "What is it?"

"Well...so...um...how have you been lately?" he asked, this time actually gathering up the courage to face her. Adelaide blushed a bit and lowered her head so her bangs would be able to hide the shade of scarlet spread across her cheeks.

"I've been...alright I guess." the blond bit her lower lip, hopefully her tone wasn't as shaky as she thought it was, after all it was..._partially_ true. She smiled, or at least tried to force one, if there was someone she knew would be able to tell the difference, she knew it was him, yes, _was_.

Tom gulped, for some reason her smile made him feel guilty, and he knew the reason why, but that spark in her eyes just made the burden in his shoulders even heavier, he remembered that look, though the girl walking besides him may have forgotten, but even until now that memory of her crying her heart out to him that winter night back at the academy, was just as vivid as his first kiss.

_Their_ first kiss.

He shook that thought off his head. _Don't be stupid Tom...you're the one who took it away from her..._his shoulders tensed uneasily before returning his gaze back on Adelaide. Her eyes were fixated on the ground, both hands behind her back. Tom couldn't help but smile.

_So you're still so shy huh?_ He let out a small chuckle, hopefully one she wasn't able to hear. _Guess some things never change_...

"So..um...what about you then?" Adelaide pinched one of her hands that were hidden behind her back. Why is it that she can't even speak a _single_ straight sentence when she's with him. "...Still traveling I presume?"

"Yeah, and you?" Adelaide stopped in her tracks.

"Hm? What is it?" Tom asked, turning around to face the blonde girl, her bangs now shadowed her face. "A-Adelaide?"

"I..." her gaze diverted to the side before she shook her head, her words clumped up in her throat. "You know how it is..."

_Oh._

Clenching his fists, the boy couldn't help but think how stupid it was of him to ask something so obvious. "S-sorry...I didn't mean to...I shouldn't have asked that..."he sighed, how can he forget that she was an aristocrat? But he wasn't used to idea even when they were kids anyway, he only found out about halfway through the academy, and he didn't exactly believe it until the end of school term.

"No, its okay." she flashed a smile at him before going off to walk in front of the brown haired boy. "Besides I don't really look like a Lady of a rich noble family do I?" she giggled at her own joke before slowing her walking pace. Tom frowned a bit._ Heck Adelaide, how about you look at your reflection at the mirror from time to time?..._his cheeks turned a soft shade of pink at that thought.

"But don't worry about it that much. I'm still the same Adelaide..." she giggled again, and Tom could have sworn that her smile has gotten so much more lovelier than he remembered, and it just made him feel even more guilty than he already was...and the gray clouds forming above them wasn't exactly lifting up his mood either.

"Adelaide?"

"Yes?" she turned around, and the way she her dress swayed when she gracefully twirled to face made his heart skip a beat. "What is it Tom?" she somehow hesitated in asking that question, but she did her best to smile anyway. But whatever she does, she knew her smiles weren't as sincere as they were, they were all fake, or forced, and she hated to do it, but she had to, she didn't have the courage to even face him eye to eye, what more to, well, _truly_ smile at him.

"Adelaide...can I ask you something?"

She blinked. "Of course."

Tom's words seemed clumped up at his throat, the words refusing to come out of his mouth. "By chance do you remember..." he hesitated to continue his question. The girl in front of him walked towards him, a smile formed on her lips, and yet it disturbed him how her eyes looked so...

...Lonely.

The thunder roared. Adelaide lifted her head up to the skies as the rain started to pour down on them. Tom gritted his teeth as he took Adelaide's hand without hesitation as he pulled her towards the shade of the trees around them.

Adelaide felt her face heating up, _fast_. She's held hands with a lot of men, her brother, her father, and some of her suitors she was forced to dance with whenever her uncle would host dances at his mansion, but never had she felt her blood rushing up her veins so fast to the point she'd think her heart might burst. But Tom was different, sure he's held her hand at least once, but for some reason right now it was much more different then how she felt back then. Had her feelings for him really changed?

Or...did it just grew even more...?

The blonde was panting heavily by the time Tom was able to drag both of them under the shade of an oak tree, she grit her teeth, despite it being embarrassing when it came to the other heiresses, she was never very agile when walking in her high heels, and she could definitely feel the pain on her feet from running.

"You okay?" she lifted her head, only to see Tom staring at her intently, her blush turned into a shade of scarlet as she nodded, her gaze on the ground as she slowly untied the ribbons holding her hair into childish pigtails, taking them off one at a time. The brown haired teen standing in front of her felt his cheeks flushing as he gazed upon Adelaide, her wet, golden blonde hair cascaded down her back and he couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"Well it looks like the rain's not gonna stop anytime soon..." he sighed as he leaned against the trunk of the tree. The girl standing beside him nodded, her eyes fixated on the ground. She heaved out a small sigh. _Aria and Selene must be worried sick by now_...she bit her lip before she went a chilly wind pass by.

"Achoo!"

Turning around, Tom smiled softly as Adelaide blushed and turn her back towards him, her right hand covering her mouth. "Excuse me..." she blushed harder in embarrassment, she started brushing her hair with her fingers, letting the drops of water fall on her shoulder as she squeezed her hair a bit in order to let it dry.

"Here." Adelaide blushed even harder as she felt something soft plumped on her shoulders. She turned her head, only to feel her face burning more at the sigh of Tom putting his jacket on her. "This should keep you warm." he smiled at her, his hair a little wet because of the rain. Adelaide could only nod, wondering if he was always this kind with every girl he knew.

_Of course he is, don't get any ideas you stupid excuse for a rich aristocrat._

"Thanks..." she muttered though she still wasn't able to face him, a hand gripping tightly on the fire red jacket he lent her. Tom smile quickly faded away as he noticed the girl's hand was trembling. Was it because of the cold? No, even if they were both soaked from the rain, it wasn't that.

"You know, we can just wait until the rain stops..." she offered, but Tom noticed that the girl was shaking a bit, maybe it was best to actually hurry up before both of them would get a cold, besides using a tree as shade from the horrible weather wasn't a very good choice to begin with, seeing a raindrop would fall on them occasionally...

Adelaide sighed again, at this rate she would definitely fall ill because of her sickness, but she felt happy either way, being able to spend some time with Tom wasn't worth the risk, but she didn't care. If getting a high fever was the price for getting to do that, she wouldn't mind much, but Artemis would...

She sighed at the thought. _I wonder how she'd react to seeing Tom again..._she thought and sneezed again, a little louder this time. "You sure you're going to be okay?" Tom asked, his eyes filled with concern which only made Adelaide's blush turn even redder, but she nodded anyway. Tom clenched his fists before walking to stand in front of her.

"You're going to get a cold.." he stated as he noticed the girl was starting to breath even harder as she looked away, her face red, but not in the way he thought was the cause. "Come on..." he said, his cheeks blushing a bit at what he was about to do.

"T-Tom?" Adelaide shrieked as he carried her bridal style, her face as red as a tomato. "Wha-what are you doing?" Tom smiled for a bit before putting his jacket over her head so she wouldn't get wet any more than she already was.

"Hang on. I'll take you home, just tell me how to get there okay?" Adelaide looked away before finally slowly nodding as she tightened her grip on his jacket, only because the rain was starting to pour on her head again, and she didn't want Tom to adjust it for her, it would be so embarrassing...

Tom could only flash a smile at her as he began running along the deserted streets of Castelia, ignoring the heavy rain pouring down on him, only stopping for a few seconds to ask Adelaide which road he should take, but he didn't expect to pass through a forest before reaching a metal gate, a gigantic crest engraved on the steel which he just barely recognized: the crest of the Spitzfield House.

"So is this it?" he turned to Adelaide, still in his arms. She could only nod, her bangs shadowed the upper part of her face as she clung to his jacket which was more or less able to shield the upper part of her body from the rain.

"Um...Tom?" she asked, her voice small like a mouse. "Can you...put me down now?" she asked as Tom felt his face turning red. "Uh...sure..." he said and let her down. _Ack! Tom, how can you be so stupid!_ He grit his teeth before turning his gaze back to the gate. "So...how are we supposed to get in...?"

Adelaide just walked towards the gate and it automatically opened once she stepped foot a few meters from the gate. Tom just stood there in the rain, not knowing if he should follow her or just stand there, gawking at how elegantly she walked towards the mansion a few more meters away.

"So...are you coming?" she turned and faced him, her tender smile spread across her lips. Tom smiled back and nodded before walking towards her. Adelaide von Spitzfield, he could still remember when they used to talk and laugh at the rooftops of the dorms back in the academy, and yet she was the same graceful young lady that stood before him in such a way that made him feel even guiltier at how he must have made her wait...

He reached out his hand to caress her cheek, making her blush in confusion to what he was doing. But before he could even touch her face, two figures ran out of the mansion, one of them was holding an umbrella in the far back while the other was running towards the girl. She was about Tom's age and wore a sleeveless black turtleneck, with long sleeves detached from the shoulders, her short bluish black hair were hung loose.

He knew only one girl that would have stayed with Adelaide after all this time...

"Adelaide!" the girl called out with a smile as she waved towards her, but as she ran closer she noticed that she brought someone with her. The bluenette stopped in her tracks, her smile quickly fading into a surprised expression and her dark bluish green eyes grew sharp not soon after that, deep hatred clearly reflected in them.

"Adelaide..." she called again, not daring to blink, the girl's fists were clenched. "...who is that you're with?" her voice was low, but it wasn't exactly soft either. She eyes the brown haired boy then back at Adelaide, expecting a reasonable answer before her stare turned into a glare as she noticed the red jacket around Adelaide's shoulders.

"Well Adelaide?" she asked as the other figure appeared behind her. He had similar facial features to the girl in black and had the same sharp bluish green eyes, except he was obviously a guy and his spiky hair was a shade of brownish black rather than blue.

Tom turned nodded at the boy who's eyes widened in surprise, almost losing grip of the umbrella he was holding. "Hello Artemis, Apollo." he smiled at the twins. There was no mistake that these two were Adelaide's close friends and companions even before their academy days. 'Its been a while..."

Adelaide's gaze reverted her gaze to the ground as the rain continued to pour down on them. Artemis didn't even care if her clothes were soaking wet, or rather did she noticed how Tom had been nice enough to think of Adelaide's well being. She was angry, and Adelaide was supposed to be too.

"Adelaide-sama!" The tension was finally lifted as Selene and Aria came out of the house and ran over to the girl. "Are you alright? Where have you been?" the two maids asked as they brought her inside. Adelaide however stopped in her tracks and turned around.

"Ojou-sama?" Aria said and turned around as well as Adelaide borrowed Selene's umbrella and walked towards Tom, a smile forming in her lips.

"You should come in too, I shouldn't be leaving an old friend standing in the rain like that after I borrowed his jacket right?" she joked. Tom smiled and turned towards the twins' direction. Artemis crossed her arms, obviously not happy with Adelaide's decision.

"Adelaide, I really shouldn't think we should..." Artemis cut herself off as Adelaide shook her head and faced her. "Come on Artemis, its just for today, besides he's been kind to me hasn't he? Tom deserves to at least stay here for the night."

"W-wait! He's sleeping over? No no no no no_ no_! Adelaide I am not letting Thunderstone sleep in the same house under the same roof as you!" Artemis snapped. Tom heaved out a small sigh. He wasn't surprised that until now Artemis would still rather call him by his last name.

"She's right Adelaide, I'm thankful for the offer, really, but I don't think I should-" Tom stopped as he looked at Adelaide, the look on her face was clearly of disappointment as she diverted her gaze to the ground. Oh now he felt as if he was the bad guy if he turned on her offer.

"F-fine..." he sighed and Adelaide's only sign of victory was her beautiful smile. Artemis however let out a loud sigh as she rolled her eyes before Adelaide turned towards her and puffed up her lower lip, and seeing her bestfriend pouting was enough for the bluenette to admit defeat. "But he'lll just hang around for a night, and that's final."

She nodded and blushed as she and Tom entered the mansion, walking side by side as he asked exactly where was he supposed to stay in for the night.

"In the guest room of course!" she giggled a bit, as if his question was supposed to be a joke. Tom couldn't help but smile at the sight of Adelaide smiling. Sure he could still see her shyness as they talked but he didn't mind. It was Adelaide after all, she's always been shy.

Artemis bit her lip as she and Apollo watched them from a distance. She wasn't happy with how their relationship was going, not that she was jealous, hell no, she would turn insane before she would become jealous of him. With the way things were planning out, they'd probably end up becoming friends again, and to Adelaide she was sure that those feelings would only blossom even more, even if it was one-sided, and it only made her angrier.

There now beside her was the brown haired teen that the bluenette wished that she would never lay eyes on again, the person who hurt the person who she considered was her sister regardless of blood. He made her wait, while she was made to be left alone and forced to take the responsibilities of a head of a noble family barely at the age of fourteen. Judged by the ones that were supposedly her remaining adversaries, simply because of the will her father had left that gave all of his earthly wealth to her, his only daughter and living child...other than the twins who were originally her servants, she was all alone...

...Unwanted...

...Unloved...

...and the other nobles having either a death wish or a proposal by their sons to court her as the only things to give her, less help her. And then after all those miserable days she cried at her family's grave, her very own body weakened because of the grief she has experience, all that which just came too suddenly for anyone...

And its all _your_ fault...

If there was someone she could blame all these things on, he was standing right next to lady that suffered all those years that she also held on in order to wait for him, all because of a childish promise that she should have forgotten...and yet she chose to hold on to, despite the toll it took to her body...she waited, and hoped to see you just one more time before she herself would disappear from this world...

* * *

><p>"Artemis, if I die before I get to see him again..."<p>

"Adelaide...please don't say that...you'll get better soon..."

She hoped it was true, the cure was simple, but at the same time money was no use to her current condition. Adelaide flashed a small smile as she laid on her hospital bed. It had only been a few months since she was last attacked, having her immune system give up on her because of the grief she experience shortly after both of her parent's deaths. Her father leaving first, and only shortly after that even her mother passed away...

Artemis tried not to let the tears forming in her lashes fall down her cheeks as he sat beside Adelaide's bed, holding on to her hand, squeezing it slightly afraid that she might give up any moment. The blonde slowly shook her head. Adelaide wasn't the one to easily give up, but at the same time she knew when to give in once there was really no more hope.

"Come on Adelaide, please...just give up on him already...we only have five years left until they force you to get married, you can find someone else! But if you're conditions gets worse during those years..."

She couldn't go on, she didn't have the willpower to. She was supposed to be strong, fearless. But even so there was a lot more things she was afraid of then she was proud of, and one of them was losing her bestfriend. The girl laying helplessly on the bed could only shake her head.

"I made a promise to him remember? Its alright Artemis, I'll wait, even if its only until I can see him again. Then I won't pursue my feelings him no further. Can you at least let me wait until then?"

She smiled, a smile so tender and innocent that even the bluenette hasn't ever seen before. The tears thoughtless flowed down her face as she nodded, squeezing the girl's hand even tighter.

"Thank you Artemis..."

Adelaide coughed.

"Adelaide-!"

The blonde smiled again.

"I'm alright."

Artemis heaved out a relieved sigh.

"Don't scare me like that..."

"I'm sorry..."

Adelaide's eyes tilted a bit as she turned to look outside the window, her smile slowly fading away as the tears began to form in her eyes.

"This was only supposed to be a flu, I must be getting even weaker if my body can't even handle a little cold..."

Artemis slowly nodded. The doctor said that she would be able to recover after just a night's sleep, but it was true, that at this rate, there is a greater chance that she might give away if she doesn't stop thinking on all the negative emotions of grief that she felt.

"I'm really not going to last long..."

"Please don't say things like that..."

She forced a small smile.

"You're right Artemis. I'm sorry if I have to worry you and Apollo like this...but I really want to get better. If only I wasn't so hung up on these feelings of mine..."

"You really shouldn't be hanging on to such a childish promise..."

She nodded in agreement.

'I'm so naive aren't I...?"

Artemis stayed silent, she didn't know why, but the words just seemed to stay clumped up in her throat.

_No, you're not._

Adelaide giggled a bit, but Artemis knew she was just forcing it.

"So I only have myself to blame..."

_It isn't your fault..._

"Promise to me Artemis...if I won't be able to tell him..."

_No...please..._

"Then please tell him..."

_Don't say things like these...!_

"...that I..."

_..Please..._

"...honestly..."

_...but above all else..._

"..I really did love him..."

...

..._I want you to be happy_.

"Of course I'll tell him."

_Even if he doesn't deserves to know..._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And now we all know why Artemis is so angry. ^^**


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